Spain called to defend 'Land Grab' at EU Commission on Thursday

Spain's 'Ley reguladora de la Actividad Urbanistica' (LRAU), commonly referred to as the Valencian land grab law, will be debated by the European Commission in Brussels later this week. The issue is due to be heard in the European Court of Justice on Thursday the 16th and is likely to result in significant financial penalties for Spain.

The Kingdom of Spain is being called upon to defend it's controversial LRAU legislation and its more recent replacement, the 'Ley Urbanistica Valenciana' (LUV) which came into effect in 2006.

This is good news for Abusos Urbanisticos No, the Costa Blanca based protest group. Since their conception 5 years ago they have campaigned relentlessly to bring the issue to the Commission to take on the case as a clear breach of EU law and the human rights of citizens.

The country as a whole has been called upon to defend itself against the charges as it is the country who has the responsibility to keep check on the laws passed by the Government of the Communidad Valencia.

The existing LUV law commonly sees property owners being forced to give up portions of their property and contribute towards infrastructure costs for large scale urbanisation passed by local authorities and Valencia.

The EU argues that Spain failed to fulfil its obligations under EU directives concerning the procedures for the award of public works contracts.